With the advent of technology and social media platforms, this is an exciting time for content marketers to connect with target audiences. Even so, the key to success with your digital marketing strategy is in knowing which platforms will serve you best and how to use them.
There are quite a few trends for 2018 that can help you be successful, though these are the top six to pay attention to:
Social Selling
The vast majority of B2B customer rely on social networks to inform their decisions regarding purchases. Social selling is a new trend that helps brands reach their customers through intentional listening and idea exchanging. This can most easily be seen when companies customize their products or services to better serve their customers. One way to incorporate this into your brand’s strategy is by actively engaging with the community and creating content that is relevant to them. Create meaningful interactions with your target audience and adapt your approach based on what they respond to.
Messaging Campaigns
There are 1.3 billion users on Facebook messenger and those numbers are growing by the day. This is just for friendly chats, either. Blogging guru Neil Patel reports that his Facebook messenger campaigns have an 88% open rate, which is far higher than more traditional e-mail campaigns. This is an important trend to stay ahead of if you want to get your message to your potential customers quickly.
Corporate Blogging
Corporate blogging provides incredible opportunity to get your brand seen and heard. It allows you to optimize organic searches, create a community, engage with your target market, and showcase the human side of your brand or company. In fact, 70% of customers learn about a brand or company through the content on its page via organic searches, making it an invaluable part of your comprehensive marketing strategy.
Automation Services
There are certain tasks that are simply better handled by automation tools. If there are tools that can help you perform better and engage more, then now is the time to use it. Technology has advanced so much that a lot of the time it can significantly improve your existing strategy. One such automation tool is Growr, a service that automatically engages with your target audience on Instagram. Growr systematically likes and follows users that are relevant to your niche so that your brand gets more exposure and more engagement.
Video Advertising
Videos are more popular than ever, with over 50% of marketers reporting that it brings the best ROI. Video is especially beneficial if your target market is on the younger range, where video is the preferred media source. If you’re not quite sure about incorporating video into your content strategy, just note that Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram have all prioritized video content by making it their primary projects for the coming year. If you want your brand to remain relevant, then it would benefit you to do the same.
Mass Personalisation
Mass marketing no longer works, thanks to the fast-paced technological world we currently live in. Instead, try mass personalisation. With the availability of valuable data on virtually all social media platforms, it is time to put that data to good use. Customise your marketing strategy according to your target audience, as based on the data. You can create complex ad campaigns accordingly, which will garner a higher conversion rate than a simple mass marketing campaign ever could.
There are many more trends to look out for in this coming year, each of which can easily be added to your current digital marketing strategy. If your primary goal is to serve your customers, then it should be a fairly easy task to adjust your strategy accordingly. While digital marketing can often seem like a daunting task, there are more opportunities than ever for your brand to thrive!
Author Bio
Marquis is a writer, social media manager and SEO content marketer. She currently lives on the coast of Ecuador, working remotely as a freelancer. Her primary focus is on building online visibility of new, up and coming brand, particularly brands that promote health and wellness. She lives a nomadic lifestyle, though is originally from California.
